The Insider System

Chapter 83: The Interrogation

Lake could feel the guy's body jerk as he woke up. Lake had clearly startled him so Lake made sure his hand was tight over the guy's mouth. When the guy went to struggle Lake pushed the knife down slightly so the guy would get the situation he was in.

During all that Lake had heard the guy make a few sounds, so he knew his Mute skill wasn't able to take care of the sounds others made, even if he was the reason they made them. Lake had never really thought it would work, so he just went with the other way of making someone shut up.

Whispering, Lake said. "..." Then Lake turned Mute off and said. "I'm just going to ask you a few questions then I'll leave." Lake waited for the guy to nod before he started to move his hand away.

When the guy didn't scream, Lake decided to be nice until the guy tried to lie to him. "Hello sorry about this, I just need some info about the alley you left earlier." The guy clearly had been expecting some higher stakes because he looked dumbfounded by what Lake had just asked for.

There must have been a better reason someone would attack this guy. Maybe he knew something important about something, but Lake didn't care about all that, he just wanted to know about the alley. "I just went to sell some stuff I brought from my village."

This at least confirmed there was a store in the alley but Lake wanted to know why this guy would choose such a weird place to sell his stuff. Surely there were places less grimy. "Why'd you go there instead of a normal store?"

The guy took too long to answer, so Lake assumed whatever he was about to say was going to have some details missing, if it wasn't just a flat out lie. "I don't know it was just the first place I saw." This was a lie so Lake got serious and started to push the knife down.

"Stop, please Stop!" Lake did stop, but not because he was told to. He still needed more answers. "Just tell me the truth." Lake wondered what could be worth lying about in a situation like this. He was literally about to cut this guy's head off.

"One of my friends from home ran off to join the Thieves guild years ago, and I ran into him yesterday when I got to the city. He said he would give me a good price if I went to his store." This was the truth, and all Lake needed to know, so he reactivated Mute, and Burst and left before the guy could scream.

Lake never heard a scream which was nice because it meant the guy was probably just going to pretend this never happened. Even if he did try to find Lake, the only thing the guy had seen other than his normal looking armor was his eyes, which had been a different color because he changed his identity.

Going straight to the alley, Lake looked down it to see there was only one door that was on the left building. No sign or anything that would tell you it wasn't just a door they threw trash out of so Lake guessed this was a word of mouth place which meant he needed to have an explanation of how he found the place.

Lake thought saying a drunk guy told him sounded believable, so he decided to go with that. Walking down the alley, Lake stopped once he reached the door. When it didn't open on its own he knocked. "We just closed." Lake was about to walk away when he realized what they had just said was a lie.

He thought this must be some dumb test to see if he was in the thieves guild or not. He didn't know the password, or whatever so he just knocked again. When the door opened so he could walk in, Lake guessed he had passed.

Stepping inside Lake was surprised at how much nice stuff was inside this shop. Every counter and shelf was glittering with a million different pieces of jewelry. Lake guessed there was so much because everyone who came here only sold stuff and never bought anything.

It made him wonder if they would even take his ring, and even if they did he would probably only get a few gold for it. Lake had never really needed the money though, he was just here to see if they would take bigger stuff if he brought it here.

Walking to the counter, Lake set the ring down, and waited for the guy to start a conversation. After he inspected the ring for a while he said. "Usually people bring me more than one thing at a time. Are you new to town?" Lake nodded yes, and said. "Just here to check the place out first. Wanted to see how much you could handle at once."

"More than this." The guy threw the ring in a pile next to the counter and said. "You see that door, if you can get it through that I'll buy it." Lake was happy this guy seemed to understand what he was saying and had a nice rule Lake could follow while doing business here.

Lake was about to leave when the guy said. "You're not a member of the guild are you?" Lake didn't lie because he knew the guy was about to offer him a membership card like every other cashier would. "No." Lake saw the guy was about to take something out from behind the counter and stopped him. "Some other time maybe."

The guy nodded but still gave Lake something. A piece of gold, Lake guessed this was for the ring, and left while putting it in his satchel. Lake didn't want to join yet, because he wasn't sure how his identity would work if they had something similar to the scroll he had signed when he joined the Alchemist guild.

It had known his name after he touched it so it had somehow read his stats, and Lake wasn't sure if his Impersonate skill would be able to fool something like that. The last thing Lake needed was a badge from the thieves guild with his actual name on it. Lake thought it would be better if he killed a member and stole their identity badge and all.

He could just pretend to be them for a while using Play The Part, and get all the info he needed to know to be a member. Once he was outside Lake couldn't help but think he had been too cautious, none of the things he had been expecting to happen had. The guy didn't even ask him how he found the place.

Lake thought it might have been his demeanor that had won the guy over. Lake knew he wasn't the only person who could read other people because he was pretty sure it was a side effect of having high Perception, and that guy would have high Perception from being an Appraiser because it gave 5 per level.

Lake had also noticed he couldn't really read the guy behind the counter too well and he was pretty sure it had something to do with shopkeepers having high Charisma. Charisma made people better in social situations, so it made sense to Lake that having a lot of it made it harder for people to read you.

Looking up Lake saw the sky was starting to brighten meaning it was the day the feast was originally going to be held. Lake was sure it had been postponed because of the war starting up again so he didn't need to go back to the guild today if he didn't want to but he was starting to get tired again.

At the moment he felt how you did when you drank coffee instead of going to bed, plenty of energy but still tired. It was mainly his legs, they didn't really want to walk anymore, and it made sense with all the running he had done today.

Lake didn't really see any other option but to go back to the guild to get some sleep. He had originally wanted to stay out here for a few days before going back, but with him not being able to find a room to rent, he had nowhere to sleep but the guild.

Walking towards the guild Lake felt a number of eyes snap towards him. Not wanting to give it away, Lake continued to walk. Lake knew if he started to run at least one of the people that had been here spying on the guild would want to catch him before he could get inside.

Lake wondered if these were the same people from this morning. If they were, he was surprised they were still here, but it would explain why he was drawing so much attention if they remembered him. They clearly knew he wasn't just some guy walking down the street with nothing to do with the guild. Lake just hoped none of them tried to stop him.